One downtown restaurant offers Indian and Nepali cuisine like your mother would make, if your mom were from India or Nepal.
Ghar-e-Kabab (944 Wayne Ave) aims for the subtle flavors and coarse textures of home cooking. It’s not about whacking diners over the head with exotic spices, or about hand-carved decor and Ravi Shankar’s greatest hits. It’s about eating — and eating a lot — in a comfy environment.
For the uninitiated (or just plain gluttonous), the restaurant’s thali platters are a good bet. The meaty version ($18) offers generous samples of lamb and chicken curries, plus a bunch of side dishes (reviewed below).
The lamb curry has a warm, earthy flavor and makes for rich comfort food, even if the meat is a little tough. The tender chicken masala is tangy with tomato sauce, and the grilled boneless chicken imparts a slight smoky flavor. It’s pretty good.
The vegetarian thali ($16, pictured) also hits with a lot of food. Particularly tasty is the palak paneer, coarsely chopped fresh spinach sauteed with buttery hunks of cheese and kickin’ curry. The platter’s chana masala also works, laying down “meaty” chickpeas with a subversively spicy curry sauce.
Each thali platter comes with a hulking samosa — dense curried potatoes stuffed in a crisp wrapper. There’s also a piece of naan bread that’s similar to pizza crust in taste and texture; smoky lentils; a billowing pile of basmati rice; unremarkable mixed vegetables; and raita, a refreshing cucumber-yogurt sauce that plays nicely against the platter’s bolder flavors.
And just in case there’s still room in the belly, each platter comes with a small serving of kheer, sweet and runny rice pudding that will have diners licking at their bowls.
Penguin taste testers hit this restaurant on its third day of business, and there were still some kinks in service to be worked out. Still, the servers were helpful and apologetic, and the food arrived quickly despite the wait to place an order. The place also did a frenzied takeout business.
Ghar-e-Kabob, 944 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring, (301) 587-4427.
Originally published on Jan 30, 2008.
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Having hit this place on both its second and third day of business, I also recommend the mango lassi (fresh and creamy with hints of coconut), any of the orders of bread (which come fresh from the oven), and the Nepali specials such as the Cho-e-la (cold marinated duck).
This place is a real treat in a region overflowing with mediocre indian cuisine.
I went with a girlfriend on Thursday night. The service was outstanding and the food was delicious! We both had the vegetarian thali — perfectly seasoned. It was a great way to get a sampling of many tasty dishes. Next time I’ll try some of the meat dishes and a salty lassi!
We’ve now eaten there twice and had wonderful experiences both times. My husband is crazy about the butter chicken, says it’s the best he ever had – and he’s had a lot of Indian, including tony establishments downtown.
“Penguin” neglected to mention two critical items for families:
(1) free delivery in 5 mile radius and (2) a kids’ menu for $5. Sure, mac ‘n cheese isn’t exactly South Asian, but then, your kid isn’t looking for exotic cuisine, now is s/he? It keeps them happy while you meander through your thali platter.
Free sample mango lassi was also served to our offspring, and went down so well we ordered another. The complimentary dessert (khir) was also welcome and delicious. Owners are friendly locals who live on Dale Drive. Highly recommended.
We tried it on their 4th day of business. Still working out the service kinks, but the manager (owner?) was very courteous and apologetic. The restaurant filled up shortly after we got there, a significant number of whom had come at the recommendation of a neighborhood listserve post.
Our 2-year-old daughter was offered a mango lassi and her meal was free too (children under 4 eat free)! We asked for a vegetable biryani for her, and my husband and I got the thalis, meat for him and vegetarian for me. There were some awesome dishes, and excellent bread. But those darned mixed vegetables kept showing up in too many dishes. It was in the vegetable biryani, the mixed vegetable dish in the vegetarian thali, and in the samosas. For a restaurant that touts fresh, natural ingredients on its menu (it even offers that as an explanation for why preparation time might be longer), its overuse of frozen vegetables was quite conspicuous.
Maybe they just need a little more time to work out the smaller details, so we may go back again, just not very soon. We wanted so much to like it, though, because we’ve been waiting so long to a viable alternative to the mediocre-at-best Bombay Gaylord.
I like the Buffet there when I go there for lunch. Besides buffet, my favorite is MoMo (a kind of dumpling). It is the most popular lunch food in Kathmandu, Nepal. Chho-e-la is also great. Back in Kathmandu, I loved buff chho-e-la. Lastly, one of the special items of Nepali cuisine is Goat meat. I was greatly delighted to see goat meat curry when I visited Ghar-E-Kabab last time.
Our family eats here regularly. The staff is incredible and accommodating to a fault! The food is unbelievable. Certainly the best Indian food in the area n.b. those of you tired of the usual on University Rd. or elsewhere. I can recommend any of the curries and their vegetarian selection is out this world. Try a thali to get an wide selection of what the restaurant offers.
An interesting turn of events came the other day when I inquired about the diffrence between Indian and Nepalese cuisine. We had a long talk on the subject and to my surprise the differences were very subtle and largely related to the order of seasoning (as I recall). I was told that if I would like to try the true Nepalese seasoning, all I had to do was request it along with any item on the menu. I did this next time and indeed it was different. I recommend trying it if for nothing else than the experience. I found the Nepalese way of seasoning resulted in a heartier, earthier but spicier flavor. It might not be something you’ll order ever time but certainly on occasion. I admit I am rather ignorant on the distinctions here and how the cook prepares the food (apologies if I got it wrong) but there were definite commonalities with some of the strictly Nepalese items I tried and the unique flavor of the more strictly Indian recipes this very special restaurant offers.
In any event, I encourage people to try the restaurant, take the time to meet the staff and don’t forget to bring your kids. You won’t regret it.
Pros: Magnificent food!, flexible menu, family friendly, wonderful staff, overall pleasant dining experience away from the SS robo-restaraunts, public parking across the street, delivery service
Cons: Serving sizes sometimes vary, can get costly with a thali or when ordering extras that should otherwise be included with the meal (nan), might want to invest in some more interior decoration in a year or two, staff is so nice it makes me feel guilty when I order delivery
Recommended for: almost any occasion, dates, family dining, relaxing, plotting your next trek to the Himalayas
This is probably now my favorite restaurant in Silver Spring.
I was meeting some friends there for dinner before going to a movie, and one of us was late. While we were waiting out front, one of the staff came out and asked us how many we were waiting for. I told him we were waiting for one more and he informed us he’d hold a table for us. He was as good as his word. My gang, some of whom are experienced with Indian food, proclaimed it great cuisine. They’re already on me to plan another get-together so they can go there again.
I posted a comment back in February when this restaurant first opened. Fortunately, we opted to give it another try — lo and behold, the difference was noticeable. First of all, the frozen vegetables that were ubiquitous during our first-week visit had disappeared. The biryani was filled with the familiar ingredients that I’ve been accustomed to in other restaurants — sweet golden raisins, cardamom, nuts. I can’t remember what the vegetables were this time around in my husband’s meat thali, but they were definitely fresh and authentic. Our daughter’s meal was still free, with a free mango lassi, and the restaurant has proven to be quite popular. We were happy to see that it has taken off, and is finding its legs. Bravo!
We’ve enjoyed our meals at Ghar-E-Kabab, but we like Bombay India even better. Not only is the food at Bombay India delicious (we love the malai kofta, chicken tikka masala, and shahi paneer), the takeout serving sizes are much larger than Ghar-E-Kabab’s, and the prices are lower. The only drawback is that Bombay India doesn’t deliver.